Texas EMS chief suspended for misusing city vehicle

He agreed to 30 unpaid days off work for driving the vehicle for personal use more than once in the past year

By Ciara O'Rourke
Austin American-Statesman

AUSTIN-TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — An Austin-Travis County EMS division chief has been suspended for 30 days after officials say he misused a city vehicle.

Division Chief Pete DiDonato used one of the department’s take-home vehicles on more than one occasion to drive somewhere “despite being told that using city resources for that purpose was not allowed,” according to a disciplinary memo made public Wednesday.

Where DiDonato drove is redacted in the memo, which lists insubordination and acting in a way that discredits the department as reasons for his suspension.

The document also says that DiDonato has agreed to the suspension on the condition that he cannot appeal and that EMS Chief Ernie Rodriguez cannot fire or demote him for this misconduct.

Join the discussion

The comments below are member-generated and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of EMS1.com or its staff. If you cannot see comments, try disabling privacy and ad blocking plugins in your browser. All comments must comply with our Member Commenting Policy.

EMS1 is revolutionizing the way in which the EMS community finds relevant news, identifies important training information, interacts with each other and researches product purchases and suppliers. It has become the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for prehospital and emergency medical services.